Avon Gorge and The Roaches

The Friday following our trip to Wales, I was back in the car again first thing on my way to Bristol, ostensibly for a job interview.

I turned up late to the interview (thanks to misdirections from my consultant), did well enough for them to ask me back for a second interview because that's how I roll, and turned it down anyway because I'm done with the financial services industry forever.

Far more lucrative was a chat with a professor from Bristol University. Watch this space, I hope...

Naturally I used the opportunity to get a quick climb in before racing home. Idleburger Buttress was a straightforward but enjoyable single pitch, with some polished moves lower down.

The next morning I once again found myself alone in a car full of climbing and camping gear. This time we were headed to the Roaches.

In typical fashion I arrived just as Will was setting off from Bristol and so had a several hour wait. I occupied myself by taking a few pictures of a team on the lower pitch of Valkyrie, then doing a little bit of soloing on some moderate ground of the Upper Tier. Then the weather which had been just about holding off closed in properly. I ducked for cover under a conveniently placed rock with a view of the Valkyrie top-out. The team from earlier were still making their way up the top pitch. The second was apparently able to find some shelter but for the poor leader, stuck on belay, there was absolutely nowhere to hide or escape.

Wrong place, wrong time. A bedraggled climber caught out in a rain storm.

As soon as the squall passed, the patch of ground in front of the Upper Tier resembled a meerkat colony, with people popping up from various shelters strewn around. At long last the Valkyrie team completed the top pitch with a much larger audience than expected.

You'll be glad to know that the sun came out shortly afterwards, and not too long after that Will arrived to rescue me from my boredom. We climbed a few short and easy VDiffs at the right hand end of the Lower Tier, before unroping and doing them again in solo. Will then struggled his way up Sifta's Quid, his first HS. Being somewhat more lithe, I was able to follow without too much difficulty.

Easy soloing on Captain Lethargy

To round things off, I had a half arsed attempt at leading the lower pitch of Valkyrie, gave up and jammed my way up Yong, a fierce little HVDiff.

I caught this view of the Hen Cloud on the way back to the car

We were slow getting started the following morning after a few beers and a surprisingly comfy night's sleep at the Roaches Bunkhouse down the road. Adam and Rachael were already gearing up by the time we rocked up at the crag, and had done a route before I even had my harness on.

First we attempted Jeffcoat's Chimney, a classic (blank, squirmy and slimey) VDiff. First Will and then I struggled to make any decent progress, eventually leaving half our rack hanging off the route at intervals. For the second time in a week, I found myself abseiling off the top to retrieve gear, then going up again to retrieve the rope. Don't try pulling a rope through on grit, it won't work.

We now turned our attention to Blacks and Tans, a classic gritstone Severe. Will lead the first pitch without too much trouble. I carefully stepped around and over him, then gently edged out along a hand traverse to a ledge. Stepping off this ledge required a committing move up on a smeary foothold.

From here it seemed as if the hard work was done, and a few more careful moves would lead to the top. Instead, I found myself on a narrow ledge from which the only way up was an off balance mantelshelf move. There was no protection to be had at all, and nor was there any way to safely climb back down. After standing there a few minutes, and with a growing crowd peering up at me, I took the only remaining option and shouted for a rope down.

When Will finally joined me at the top, he took great pleasure in pointing out to me the route around to the left which I could have safely taken if I'd explored just a little bit further round.

My mood wasn't improved by Adam's report on all the HS routes he'd lead in the meantime. After that debacle, I'd had quite enough of climbing for one weekend. And indeed by the time I made it home, I'd also had enough of driving for a month too. Convenient, since a month is roughly the amount of time before I go stir crazy and need to head outdoors again.

Hen Cloud and the view from the Lower Tier

Evening light on the Upper Tier